and hand, and overmasters intellect, nobility and virtue? Oh! but it is prettily said; better that the human soul ran riot in its native spontaneity, than to have it pinched and confined by the laws of science; better that Apollo's locks were dashed and dishevelled by the hurricane, than that they be cropped and cued. But is it true, that the human soul becomes enervate, or that virtue wanes, because men reason about them? Does the dialectician degrade human nature? Is SOCRATES to be reproached, because he confuted the Sophists with his interrogative method? Is ARISTOPHANES to be adored because he obeyed the impulses of a depraved humor? Such an idea would make PAUL an object of contumely, and LUTHER an object of suspicion, because they reasoned of hope, faith and the judgment.

We would bring to the study of the lives of the great, the well defined principles of ethological science. They will at once dispel this crazy worship of headlong heroism, and winnow character, so that it may be truly and philosophically revered. Under the eye of science, worth will always be worth; and no glitter of intellect, or flash of genius, shall ever sink it into contempt, or raise its opposite into honor. It needs no wild, unreasoning mummery, no ceremonial observances, no blasts from the trumpet, to usher in its presence. It is humble and among us. We would admire, cherish, love, revere and venerate it, upon well grounded reasons; worship it-never! There has been but ONE character incarnate, worthy of worship. Had we no pure religion, in which His character is the guiding star, this devotion to earthly heroism might be pitied and pardoned. Its very similitude to Religion makes it more execrable. He who would place human character in any other than its proper place in the Parthenon of science, deserves the reprobation of the good. It has a temple in the hearts of men; but reason is the presiding minister there. Let human greatness rise. Let it rise even above the clouds of the sky, and be gilded with the glories of imagination; but let us remember its base is the broad earth which we ourselves tread,-that is the signature of OMNIPOTENCE only, that its noblest splendors are but the shadow of the ALMIGHTY, to whom alone the soul should arise in its native strength, spiritual beauty and inborn independence.

AMERICAN ELOQUENCE.

Orators of the American Revolution, by E. L. Magoon. New York-Baker and Scribner, 1848, pp. 456, with six portraits.

The dedication of this exceedingly pleasant book is characteristic of a gifted author:

"To Students who are not drones, Christians who are not bigots, and Citizens who are not demagogues, this Book is respectfully inscribed."

The portraits are of Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton, Fisher Ames and John Randolph. In the first chapter the author takes a general survey of the field of American Eloquence. Thus he speaks of the three leading spirits of the Revolution :

"Otis, Henry and Adams struggled on the rostrum, and pleaded with a price set upon their heads, while they cleared a space for the sunshine and growth of enlarged liberty. They were just the men for the task. They struck for freedom and not for plunder, and were ready to sacrifice everything in behalf of the boon for the attainment of which they fought. To give battle single-handed, like Cocles, against a horde of foes, or, like Curtius, to immolate themselves for the good of their country, was a duty which they courted rather than shunned. Those three men were the Horatii of this nation, and their renown will grow broader and brighter with the lapse of time."

"Several coincidences in our early history are remarkable. The first and last battle-fields of the Revolution are almost within sight of the colleges where our leading patriots were educated, and the rostra where the first popular debates occurred. All the chief orators of New England were graduated at Harvard; the popular discussions which led to actual conflict with the mother-country took place in the public buildings of Boston, and the first great battle for freedom raged on Bunker Hill.

"The chief leaders of the patriotic party in the south were educated at the college of William and Mary. Jefferson, then a student, heard Patrick Henry's first eloquent denunciation of oppression almost under the eaves of his Alma Mater, as John Adams, then a young man, heard Otis when he first attacked the principle of unjust taxation in the north. In the immediate neighborhood of Williamsburg, Cornwallis surrendered, and the long struggle of the Revolutionary war was closed. Thus the ball rested near where it received its first impulse. Without those col

leges to discipline our heroical fathers, how different would have been the destinies of the world! Long may the venerable halls remain, and there

"Long may young Genius shed his sparkling ray,

And throw his emanations bright around.”

Governor Barnard, writing to Lord Hillsborough, in a letter dated Boston, June 16, 1763, gives the following description of the immortal Liberty Tree:

"Your lordship must know that Liberty Tree is a large old elm in the High-street, upon which the effigies were hung in the time of the Stamp Act, and from whence the mobs at that time made their parades. It has since been adorned with an inscription, and has obtained the name of Liberty Tree, as the ground under it has that of Liberty Hall. In August last, just before the commencement of the present troubles, they erected a flag staff, which went through the tree and a good deal above the top of the tree. Upon this they hoist a flag as a signal for the 'Sons of Liberty,' as they are called. I gave my Lord Shelburne an account of this erection at the time it was made. This tree has often put me in mind of Jack Cade's 'Oak of Reformation.""

The towering elm thus referred to was the grand rallying point for the ancient Sons of Liberty. On its sturdy trunk notices of tyrannical movements, and calls to resist the same were wont to appear in the night, nobody could tell from whence; from its lofty branches obnoxious functionaries were often suspended in ridiculous representations, nobody could tell by whom. For instance, on the fourteenth of August, 1775, an effigy of Mr. Oliver, recently appointed to distribute the stamps, and a boot (emblematic of Lord Bute) with the devil peeping out of it with the Stamp-Act in his hand, and various other satirical emblems, here appeared in the manner described. By this time, so strong had the popular indignation become, that the sheriffs, when ordered to the task by Chief Justice Hutchinson, declined the danger of removing the pageantry from the tree. It would seem that on this spot "liberty poles" originated, and one now marks the site of the tree so dear to our fathers; a locality thrilling indeed in its associations.

The old church at Richmond, where Patrick Henry pronounced the doom of English oppression in America, is thus spoken of:

Hallowed are the associations connected with that venerable church in Richmond! Often has the writer sought its precincts alone, and pondered there on the scene when, within the walls yet standing, Henry, an the embodiment of the Revolution and all its sublime results, rose like one inspired, and delivered that speech unequalled in the history of man, ending with the ominous words, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" It was in the same burst of transcendent eloquence that the phrase, 'After all, we must fight!" first broke on the popular ear, and fired

66

the universal heart. The history of that expression is interesting, as showing the close relations that subsisted between the north and south in all the Revolutionary struggle. They are the expression of a quiet Puritan in the interior of Massachusetts, given to the world on wings of fire by the bold Cavalier of Virginia. The facts are stated as follows, in a letter from John Adams to William Wirt :

"When Congress had finished their business, as they thought, in the autumn of 1774, 1 had with Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each other, some familiar conversation, in which I expressed a full conviction that our resolves, declarations of rights, enumeration of wrongs, petitions, remonstrances and addresses, associations and non-importation agreements, however they might be expected in America, and however necessary to cement the union of the colonies, would be but waste-paper in England. Mr. Henry said they might make some impression upon the people of England, but agreed with me that they would be totally lost upon the government. I had just received a short and hasty letter, written to me by Major Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, containing 'a few broken hints,' as he called them, of what he thought was proper to be done, and concluding with these words, 'After all, we must fight! This letter I read to Mr. Henry, who listened with great attention; and as soon as I had pronounced the words, 'After all, we must fight,' he raised his head, and with an energy and vehemence that I can never forget, broke out with, 'BY GOD, I AM OF THAT MAN'S MIND!' I put this letter into his hand, and when he read it he returned it to me with an equally solemn asseveration that he agreed entirely in opinion with the writer. I considered this as a sacred oath, upon a very great occasion, (and would have sworn it as religiously as he did,) and by no means inconsistent with what you say, in some part of your book, that he never took the sacred name in vain."

In chapter second we have an analysis of James Otis' eloquence and of his services in the American cause. He was born at West Barnstable, Feb. 5th, 1725. He was carefully educated at Harvard. He beguiled himself occasionally by playing on his violin. On one occasion he was induced to treat some young people to a country dance, and while they were in the full tide of enjoyment he hurled up his instrument and exclaimed, "So Orpheus fiddled and so danced the brutes!" He rushed into a neighboring garden, and forsook the revel for a nobler occupation.

In 1748 he commenced practicing the law at Plymouth, but soon removed to Boston, and soon was distinguished as an accomplished advocate.

Otis was the Patrick Henry of the North. He was in the Colonial Legislature at the breaking out of the Revolutionary troubles. Gov. Barnard came into collision with the lawmaking power. He sent a message respecting the disposition

of the troops, to which Otis, as chairman of the committee appointed for that purpose, drew up a response that contained the following passage:

"No necessity can be sufficient to justify a House of Representatives in giving up such a privilege; for it would be of little consequence to the people, whether they were subject to George or Louis, the King of Britain or the French King, if both were arbitrary, as both would be, if they could levy taxes without Parliament."

When this was read, Mr. Paine, a member from Worcester, cried out, "Treason! Treason!" but after an eloquent speech from Otis, the answer was passed entire by a large majority, and sent to the Governor.

The boldness and wit of Mr. Otis is illustrated in the following passage from his Vindication of the Colony of Massachu

setts:

"In order to excuse, if not altogether justify the offensive passage, and clear it from ambiguity, I beg leave to premise two or three data. 1. God made all men naturally equal. 2. The ideas of earthly superiority, pre-eminence, and grandeur are educational, at least acquired, not innate. 3. Kings were (and plantation governors should be) made for the good of the people, and not the people for them. 4. No govern

ment has a right to make hobby-horses, asses, and slaves of the subject; nature having made sufficient of the two former for all the lawful purposes of man, from the harmless peasant in the field to the most refined politician in the cabinet, but none of the last, which infallibly proves They are unnecessary."

Thus our readers perceive this book to be made up of admirable matter. We cannot quote farther.